HAMILTON — Hamilton has not been at its best in its first two Mercer County American Legion League games, but has been at its most stubborn and tenacious.

Post 31 grinded out its second straight win Thursday night as Adam Koval’s fifth-inning RBI single was the difference in a 4-3 win over the North Hamilton Hibernians at Steinert High.

“Some days are like that,” manager Rick Freeman said. “You just gotta battle through it. When you’re not scoring runs you just have to grind and that’s what we’re doing.”

In its opener on Wednesday Hamilton was held hitless for four innings before using a three-run fifth to beat Allentown 3-2.

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North Hamilton (1-1), which always gives Post 31 fits, would prove equally difficult once starting pitcher Stephen Brown settled down after a rocky first inning.

Brown allowed an Austin Constantini double to start the first and, before the inning ended, issued four walks as Hamilton took a 2-0 lead.

“He was missing up a lot with his fastball in that inning,” Koval said.

North Hamilton came right back in the top of the second. Kyle Muller, making his first start in nine days, hit two batters with one out before Nick Houghton lined an RBI single to right. Houghton is just an eighth-grader at the Faith Christian School and has three RBI in the Hibos first two games.

After a strikeout, Joe Garey and Riley Schmitt both followed with RBI singles to give North Hamilton a 3-2 lead.

Brown, who got hurt by some shaky defense, found his control and nearly got through the third inning unscathed. But Matt Ricci hit a two-out double, Koval reached on an error and Sean O’Boyle singled to right to tie the game.

Post 31 used some more two-out lightning for the winning run when Ricci drew a two-out walk and advanced to second on a passed ball. Koval then bounced a 2-2 offering into left to score Ricci.

“He was struggling to get his fastball over but his curveball kept him in it,” Koval said of Brown. “He was throwing that real well, and we made the adjustment. He was throwing a lot of first-pitch fastballs and we just hopped on them.

“I got my hit on a curve. He was throwing it for strikes but he was leaving it up just enough to get in some trouble. “

Like Brown, Muller never quite got in a groove but did enough to limit North Hamilton to the three runs. He stranded runners on first and second in both the third and fourth innings, and left runners stuck on second and third in the fifth before throwing a clean sixth.

“He got us through six innings, he gave us a chance to win the ball game,” Freeman said. “Sometimes his mechanics get away from him, he’s a young kid, he’s still learning. Not everybody’s perfect.”

“You’re not going to see many better pitchers in the league than Muller,” Hibos manager Steve Krecicki said. “He came out and threw great. We had a couple of chances that we didn’t capitalize on and it went from there.”

Steve Loney came on in the seventh and appeared to have a clean inning before miscommunication in the outfield let Rich Knappenberger reach on an error. But Loney got Aaron Camacho on a first-pitch grounder to end it.

“I didn’t have time to get nervous about (the error) because they hit the first pitch,” Freeman said. “It’s little things. We made mistakes and got away with it tonight.”

Thus, they have emerged with a 2-0 record after a two-night trip through the grinder.